I broke my jointer

[Larry Foster]

Once again, thank you, in advance, for your patient indulgence as I prove (again) that I am a dunderhead.

I apologize that this is so long.

Recently, I started to buy some kiln dried lumber from a neighbor who has a saw mill.
This lumber is kiln- dried and because it's oversized and rough, it needs milled.

A while back I bought a second hand Craftsman jointer but hadn't felt a need to use it up until now.

Trying to be clever, I attempted to tune it up and adjust it.

(Here's where the dunderhead part starts)

I grabbed a test piece of wood to see how it performed.

I could barely get the board across the blades.
After trying a couple more times, I grabbed a different board.
It worked but the results were terrible.

Then I discovered that the first test piece was one I had previously tested a brad nailer on.
Ruined blades.

Well, that was bad enough.
Then I discovered my model jointer is obsolete and parts are scarce as hen's teeth.

I did find a source of blades but they weren't cheap.
$75 including shipping.

They finally arrived and I installed and tried to adjust.
I am sure I tightened the screws, but upon turning the machine on it banged.
Shutting down quickly, it didn't look like there was any damage.

Rechecked and tightened screws and turned on.
This time it banged hard, destroyed one blade and the clamp that holds it.
That clamp might be hard to find.

Finally, getting to my point.

Since a jointer won't be used everyday, how important is one?
The cheapest I saw new was a Craftsman for about $300.

I figured out how to get good edges with a table saw and a verified straight edge but having trouble figuring out the best way to flatten one face to run through my planer.
Cups, bows and twists.

I don't have hand planes but I do have a power planer.

I've seen other methods like a jig for a router.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Sorry for the length.

[Jim Andrew]

I had an old Craftsman jointer once. The belt would slip if I tried to flatten the face of a board. It worked ok for edge jointing, but was pretty short. If you really want to do woodworking, get an 8" jointer with helical head. Then you don't have to adjust the knives. Saves a lot of trouble for guys less than mechanically inclined.

[Phil Mueller]

Larry, search YouTube videos “how to joint boards on a planer”. You’ll find a number of different jigs that can get the job done.

[Larry Foster]

Thank you Jim and Phil.

Jim, I should have mentioned that I'm a cheap woodworker, too.:rolleyes:

Phil, I have watched a number of those videos and was wondering what you guys find best/easiest

[michael dilday]

Edge jointing is easily accomplished with a table saw. Face jointing can be done on a planer with a sled or with a router with the right jigs that are available online. If you do a lot of woodworking making larger projects like furniture then the savings of buying rough lumber will pay for a jointer in short order. I have a Jet JJP-12 combo jointer/planer and it is a great machine.

[Matt Day]

Things happen in 3’s they say, and I think you’ve used up all 3. So brighter times ahead!

I’d look for a used 6-8” jointer on CL, FB marketplace, etc.

[Thomas McCurnin]

I don't use mine (Delta 8") much, maybe a couple times a year. More often than not, my hardwood supplier joints the edges which is all I need. I often make use of a Stanley No. 7 Jointer Plane which works great and takes up very little space. Heck, a Lie Neilsen 4 and 1/2 gets things pretty flat.

[Larry Foster]

Thank you Michael, Matt and Thomas.

Michael, so far, I don't do a lot of woodworking but I like gadgets and power tools.

Matt, I may be able to get by without a jointer for now but will keep an eye out on FB and CL

Thomas, my local guy is a one man operation who still works an outside job.
While he has nice lumber and pretty good prices, his lumber is rough.

I have been watching some videos on planing for a smooth flat face using sleds

I bought the planer new a year ago and, finally, used it for the first time the other day

[Gary Petersen]

+1 on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. I sold my 6" no-name Taiwanese jointer on CL for $150 a year or so ago when I bought an 8" Grizzly. I use mine - and my 12.5" DeWalt lunchbox planer - fairly frequently and when I use them, I tend to use them a lot. The lower cost of rough-cut lumber will pay for both quickly with even moderate use. In the interim, you may be able to find someone local with one you could get some of your lumber jointed on from time to time. At least as long as you don't take the brad nailer practice pieces. That would sour a relationship pretty quickly. :-) I have a friend at work who plans to bring some wood over to joint and plane for a project of his once our SaferAtHome quarantine ends, so that kind of thing does happen.

[Larry Foster]

Thanks for those ideas, Gary

[johnny means]

I'm going to recommend a jointer plane. Not because I think it's a better tool for the task, but I think your story sounds a bit frenzied (pronounced dangerous) to me. Slowing down is an under appreciated skill.

[Richard Coers]

A jointer is critical in my shop. I don't want to diddle around with a sled and a thickness planer to take cup and twist out of every single board. I want to lay it on the jointer and make accurate lumber. It's impossible to do good joinery if the wood is twisted to start with.

[Alex Zeller]

If you can get by with a 6" jointer I would suggest watching Craig's list. I see them all the time. 8" and up are very rare on CL and tend to get bought up quickly. If you are happy with a short table jointer you can often find older ones for under $100. I've even seen modern Powermatic 6" jointers for around $500.

[Larry Foster]

Thanks for your input, johnny, Richard and Alex.

johnny, thanks for your concern.
Actually, I'm the opposite of frenzied and I am very careful.
I want to leave this world with the same amount of fingers I brought in here with me.
Dumb might be a better description.
I barely passed shop class in 8th grade.
Got my only "D" and that may have been a mercy grade.

Richard, because I can only do one project at a time due to small shop size, monkeying with a sled isn't a big deal.

But, I would have liked to have a power tool to do it quick and easy.

I'll keep checking CL and FB.
A second hand jointer is what got me into this thread.

[Jon Grider]

Thanks for your input, johnny, Richard and Alex.

johnny, thanks for your concern.
Actually, I'm the opposite of frenzied and I am very careful.
I want to leave this world with the same amount of fingers I brought in here with me.
Dumb might be a better description.
I barely passed shop class in 8th grade.
Got my only "D" and that may have been a mercy grade.

Richard, because I can only do one project at a time due to small shop size, monkeying with a sled isn't a big deal.

But, I would have liked to have a power tool to do it quick and easy.

I'll keep checking CL and FB.
A second hand jointer is what got me into this thread.

I'm don't know where you are located, but if it's driving distance to SW Michigan, I have a 1980 6" Craftsman that is in good working order. Includes extra knives , knife setting gauge and instruction booklet. I upgraded a few years ago to an 8" jointer, so this is just taking up space. I'll sell it at a reasonable price but will need your help getting it upstairs. This of course after the stay at home order is lifted. let me know.

[Lee Schierer]

Take your un-broken cutter clamp to any decent machine shop and they can likely make one for you for a nominal fee. You might want to have two made so you have a spare.

It is always a good idea when working on equipment with rotating parts to rotate those parts by hand after final assembly at least one full revolution to make sure everything clears.

[Larry Foster]

Jon, thank you for your offer.

I am in western Pa. north east of Pittsburgh.
While I'd like to meet you, that might be a little far.
Sounds like a nice machine, though

Lee, thanks for the suggestion for the clamp.
I never would have thought of that.


My dilemma is whether to try and go on with this machine since any parts are almost non-existent.
Am I throwing good money after bad?

Buying new blades again gets me up to @ $230 (including the purchase)

And does my infrequent use justify buying a new one?

I did rotate by hand before starting and pretty sure I "snugged" the screws down but didn't torque real hard and they still came loose.
Befuddled me.

The manual said not to over tighten

[Andrew Seemann]

Is your Craftsman jointer the old style one with the non-adjustable outfeed table? If so, those are frustrating to use at best. I would not put a lot of money or effort into one of those. If it is a decent one with dovetailed ways, it might be worth fixing.

[Larry Foster]

I don't think the outfeed is adjustable, Andrew.

For new, the lowest price for a 6" jointer is a Craftsman for around $300.
Others go up from there.

Maybe I'll spend some of my Trump check and get one.
:cool:

[Geoff Crimmins]

Holbren and/or Global Tooling should have knives for that jointer for $20 or so. You just need to know the dimensions of the knives. I agree with a previous poster that a jointer with a fixed outfeed table is more work/frustration to get set up correctly.

[Larry Foster]

Thanks for that info, Geoff.

I'll check it out.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Larry, I’m a hobbyist too. I don’t use my machines every day, but when I need the operation best done by my 6” jointer, I just walk over to it, hook up the dust hose, plug it in, set the cut depth, and in a scant few minutes I have a surface I can reliably slide over my router table/lift to make 0.001” incremental adjustments. Flat is critical for many, but not all, projects — if we want parts to fit the first time, that is.

For years I lived in fear of the jointer. I pretended that Home Depot lumber was flat if it looked flat (it is not). Compounding my fear, I ran into a setup dilemma last year that the good folks here talked me through. Now that it performs as intended, it’s just one of many go-to specialty tools I rotate through if needed.

Many fine objects may be made with rough lumber, of course. Focus on what you want to make. If you need parts to line up with precision, the wood needs to be well milled before joinery.

I’m fortunate that my 18-year-old jointer still works, because today it would cost at least three times what I paid for it new. So look for a hobbyist selling a lovingly kept 6” jointer. Make the jump and buy one.

[Russell Smallwood]

Depends on what you're building. Some projects (e.g. outdoor furniture or simple gun cabinets) can have pretty loose tolerances and will go together just fine with some clamps and screws. Other projects (fine furniture) have very tight tolerances and require stock to be perfectly flat/square for the joinery to work well.

Most woodworkers do just fine without a jointer for a while, then find it becomes indispensable when their skills justify more complex projects. If you go the hand tool (galoot!) route, you should be prepared for a bit of a learning curve, but once mastered, you're options open up a lot as you are no longer constrained by the size of your machines.

I use both approaches. The machines help with 80% of the things I need to do (jointer is probably the second most stationary machine in the shop). The ease of doing most of the work on the machines, makes the workflow much more pleasant as I can make progress quickly. When needed, I can also slow down and pull out the hand planes. Best of both worlds.

Must my .02

[Dan Hahr]

You definitely need a jointer if you’re working with rough lumber. But you really need to learn how one works first. Find a six inch machine used. Make sure the owner can show it works. You’re not quite ready to start restoring stuff. Use it and read about it before trying to change the knives in it. Make sure that when you do decide to change the knives that it looks exactly like it did when you started before you turn it on even then, rotate the cutterhead by hand several times to make sure that nothing is in the way of the knives.

Just to make you feel better, setting jointer knives is difficult for most people. However most people can get the job done well enough to avoid destroying their machine. If you just aren’t mechanically inclined, you can probably find a local woodworker that can help you with the chore.

Dan

[Richard Coers]

Technically I think it's impossible for the clamp to fly out unless the bolts are extremely loose. The notch in the cutter head is tapered, it was once called a safety head. They called it that after square cutter heads were used in shops and blades could fly off if the bolts were loose that held the blades to the surface of a square head. With the safety head, as long as the bolts are out far enough to limit a straight pull out of the tapered slot, they can't fly out.

[Andy D Jones]

Richard, I agree, but there's a difference between the clamp/blade flying out of the cutter head, and sliding out just far enough to strike the table.

-- Andy - Arlington TX

[Alex Zeller]

It's a few hours away from you but there's a used Delta 6" jointer for just over $300 on Craig's list.

[Mike Cutler]

Getting to my point.

Since a jointer won't be used everyday, how important is one?


Larry
If you stick with wood working, or have been doing it for awhile, but are now getting more serious, the jointer is one of the "foundation machines" that should be in a wood working shop.
Jointer, Planer, Bandsaw, and Tablesaw. These four machines allow you mill and prepare material. These four machines are the "foundation" of a versatile shop. That's also pretty much the flow of the material through the milling process.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Search for "planer sled".

I have a couple of pieces of melamine with a lip attached at one end. The planer pulls the wood in so I lead with that edge. I place my boards on this "sled" and I shim it so that it lays flat. I then send the sled through the surface planer.

Google this: planer sled site:sawmillcreek.org

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?211229-which-planer-sled-do-i-need
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?252289-Planer-sled-construction-and-use
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?134633-A-Lightweight-8-Foot-Planer-Sled

Mine is simple, dirt cheap, and fast to build, but slower to use. I would try something like mine and if it seems to work for you, then build something nicer if you are inclined.